Happy Birthday, Mum

It was my lovely Mum's birthday yesterday - 'Happy Birthday, Mum!'.

She went out for a meal with some of the family but we were working, so we took her and my Brother out for a meal later in the day.  Here is the card I made for her - its a variation of one I saw which had been designed by Julie Atkinson (Hi Julie!!!) but as I have never got around to getting the Sweet Buttons Embosslits die (yet) I had to use real buttons.

The cardstock is Brushed Gold and Very Vanilla with Crumb Cake ink sponged on the flowers and butterflies.  The stamp set is Everything Eleanor - defiantly one of my favourite sets.  The buttons are Crumb Cake and were sewn onto the flowers with Linen Thread.

You cant see it on the photo, but I sprayed the flowers and the plaque with glimmer spray so it sparkles in the light.

Thanks for the idea Julie (your designs are stunning!!!).

Hope your enjoying the gorgeous weather.
Jan

Not long left now...

I dont have anything crafty to show you today, sorry.

All I want to do is to remind you that there are only 6 days left of the brilliant Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration Promotion.  Its the biggest and best time of the year for customers, hostesses - and also demonstrators.

To get your hands on the fab freebies, you can
- spend £45 on products from either the main catalogue or Mini Catalogue
- hold a workshop with all your crafty friends with sales of over £300
or
- order the Starter Kit (£119 for up to £340 in products!)

Deadlines;
Orders for products and workshops have to be put through by Saturday 31st March.
Paperwork for the Starter Kit has to be recieved by Stampin' Up! on Friday morning (30th March).

If you would like to place an order, I will be putting my last product order in on Thursday morning, so contact me now if you would like me to add your order on.  I dont wany you to miss out - the freebies are GORGEOUS!

Thanks for stopping by.
Jan
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I've Been Ironing... well, sort of!

Yes, you read it right - I spent a few hours ironing yesterday - but not clothes, with wax!

I saw a clip of someone on the tv about a week ago making some Encaustic Wax projects and thought - mmmm, i wonder if I could do that. So, I got the starter kit and had a play...
 
Here is my first attempt at landscapes.

 The sky is just coloured in using the wax blocks like a crayon, but I got more adventurous and this one has the sky done with the iron too!
 

They looked a bit 'cartoony' to me so I added some of the Dinoroar stamped images and thought they would look ok for kids cards.  The sentiments are from two different sets, Its Your Day is from Happiest Birthday Wishes (Hostess set) and the Happy Birghday Wishes is from Petite Pairs.

Ive got a way to go with the techniques but I had a great time playing.  I did some more techniques too, but I will save those for another day.  At least now I can say I have some ironing to go which is exciting now!

Jan
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Paper Dolls Birthdays

Two members of our team, Hazel & Joanne, have had birthdays this week, and I am hoping that Joanne has got her card, otherwise this post will spoil the surprise!

Here is the card & gift bag I made for Hazel - the card for Joanne was similar but I used slightly different colours.

The card blank is Soft Suede with mats of More Mustard and Spice Cake Designer Series Paper.  The buttons in this product suite are really big, but I decided to make a real impact with a rosette behind using some Pool Party Designer Fabric.

To make the rosette, I punched out a circle of card and covered it in sticky strip.  Then I tore some of the fabric into a 1" wide strip and pleated it around the outside of the circle, making sure that I caught the fabric on the sticky strip.  I carried on working round the circle towards the centre.

For the middle of the button, I stamped one of the images from the Spiced Paisley stamp set and punched it out with the 1 1/4" circle punch.  I then pierced holes through, aligning with the holes in the button.  The fabric circle was positioned behind the button and holes pierced, again aligning the holes through the button.  Linen thread was sewn through all the layers and stamped & punched tags tied to the thread.

The 'bag in a box' I made to match was adapted to hold a couple of ink pads. 

Hope you both had lovely birthdays ladies?!

Just one thing before I go, Me & Sara are doing the Langsett Barn craft fair this Sunday.  If you fancy coming over for a crafty natter, here are the directions from Sara's website.

Jan x

Big Top Lion

Happy Sunday!
How is your weekend going?  Mines been lovely, I went to see Sara (my SU Mum) and Hazel (my SU Daughter) and the lovely Jean from Busy Bees yesterday, so I am really chilled out.  Im also going to see a lady about signing up this afternoon, so I am buzzing with excitement!!!

Dont, forget - if YOU fancy getting £300+ in products, plus all the benefits of joining Stampin' Up!  You have until 31st March to get the extra free products so contact me NOW to get your starter kit. 

There are more details here.  Remember, there are NO TIE INS and you can stop at ANY time.

Well, a quick post today as I need to shoot off.  I have decided to start making my cards A5 in size as for some reason they seem to be more popular with my customers.  I made up some 'spare' punched animals a few months ago and have been making up some cards to sell at work and here is one of my favourates.

The Designer Series Paper is from Big Top Birthday - not one I would normally choose, but it is perfect for kids cards.  I trimmed it to fit the card but the bottom of the paper was a peach shade which just wasnt right with the rest of the card.  So all I did was trim it off - carefully cutting around the seals flipper and the strongmans foot.  I then mounted it onto a mat of So Saffron, just a little smaller than the folded A4 card blank.

The lion is made from SU punches and the banner is cut from Petal Cone die, stamped with a sentiment from Under the Big Top.

Customer Thank You Cards

Well, to be honest I am so glad to see the back of February.  Its been a month where nothing went right!

The buyer we had for the house decided to pull out of the sale (5 weeks in they decided to look for other houses?!).  I only found out this morning that they have definately decided not to buy - thank you for leaving us for 3 WEEKS to find out.

I had a puncture when on site in Stoke on Trent last week (it took an hour for the AA to arrive) then my microwave exploded.  I noticed some weird posts on my Facebook wall that I knew I hadnt posted - it appears that my account has some sort of virus so I have closed the account.  Anyway, enough of my whinging. lets get on with what you have come to see...

The best parts of February have been the workshops I did with Ruth and Julie ( ***waves*** ).  Here are a couple of photos of the thank you cards I made for all the ladies who ordered Stampin' Up! products from both of the workshops and my Stampers 10 group.

This one is my favourate - and I dont normally like paisley!

 

I made 10 cards using the paisley design and then another 10 with a different design of DSP.  Unfortunately, I didnt calculate the amount of ribbon I would need so ended up having to use a different sort for some of them.  Also, have you noticed what I have used behind the ribbon - its some of the SU fabric!!!  

 

Strips of the fabric were torn (yes, torn, I know!!!) and then I just gathered the fabric along some sticky strip to look like it was pleated.  The Triple Treat flower was inked with Versamark before being heat embossed with White embossing powder - the white stands out so much on dark coloured card.  I even used some of my antique brads - these are normally only used for special cards but I was feeling generous.

I loved making these cards - I definately needed some therapy after the last three weeks. The colours remind me of the spring for some reason.  And it was so easy to match everything colourwise as its a Product Suite from the SU Mini Catalogue so everything is designed to match.

Here is what I used:

Pool Party card blank, Spice Cake Designer Series Paper, Spice Cake Designer Fabric, Very Vanilla and Soft Suede cardstock, White Embossing Powder, More Mustard Scallop Dots Ribbon, Antique Brad, the Modern Label Punch for the sentiment and Fancy Flower Punch.  The stamp sets are the Triple Treat Flower and Curly Cute.

Well, Im off to do some cleaning & ironing now I have to go back to having the house tidy.

Have a lovely weekend

Jan

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